Goal:

In this project we are building a pan-tilt robot with shaft-encoder feedback, and applying the Hershey and Movellan (2000) algorithm. The goal is to have the robot discriminate between self-motion and motion in the world ("other" motion).

UROP Proposals:

Naveed Memon- Software (HTML; MS Word; PDF Format)

Tyrel Pollak (Under Fernando Rios-Gutierrez, ECE)- Hardware (HTML; MS Word; PDF Format)

Relevant Quotes:

"The most important part of the world, and also the nearest part of the outer world, seen from a `brain's
view,' is the [agent's] own body. This leads to the speculation that a basis of such a world model might be formed by a model of the own body (Cruse, 1999). Stating that the body changes much less than the external world does, Damasio (1999) argues along similar lines." (p. 138, Cruse, 2003).

"To accurately perceive depth from patterns of retinal expansion and displacement, however, the observer must be able to distinguish retinal changes arising from self-motion from those arising from true object motion" (p. 1015, Bushnell & Boudreau, 1993).

Dean R. Massey (Michigan Technological University), Robert McFarland

References:

Bushnell, E. W. & Boudreau, J. P. (1993). Motor development and the mind: The potential role of motor abilities as a determinant of aspects of perceptual development. Child Development, 64, 1005-1021.

Cruse, H. (2003). The evolution of cognition-- A hypothesis. Cognitive Science, 27, 135-155.

Faugeras, O. D., Ayache, N. & Zhang, Z. (1988). A preliminary investigation of the problem of determining ego- and object motion from stereo. 9th International Conference on Pattern Recognition (ICPR 88).

System

Hardware Design and Construction

 

Software Design and Construction

Software

Main Project Website